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Guide · Mechanical and HVAC

HVAC maintenance schedule for Australian buildings: air conditioning, ventilation, kitchen exhaust, smoke control

Mechanical services are where an owner's health duty, fire duty and refrigerant licence law meet. This guide sets out the routine inspections, services and tests for air handling plant, air conditioning, ventilation, commercial kitchen exhaust and the fire and smoke control features of the system, how often, who attends, which rule sets the interval, and what to keep. Standards are referenced by designation; the standard itself holds the detail.

How to read this page

Intervals marked as a standard or regulation requirement are drawn from AS/NZS 3666.2 (microbial control, operation and maintenance), AS 1851-2012 (routine service of fire and smoke control features and kitchen exhaust hoods), AS/NZS 5149.4 as reproduced in the Refrigerant Handling Code of Practice, and the AIRAH kitchen exhaust guideline, as summarised by the industry. AIRAH DA19 schedules and insurer expectations are marked as recommended practice. Section and clause numbers are quoted only where the source states them.

AS 1668 is a design standard. Part 1 sets out how a building's fire and smoke control is engineered, Part 2 how much outdoor air a space needs and how it is delivered. Neither tells an owner how often to service the plant afterwards. Those duties come from four places: AS/NZS 3666.2, which sets the inspection intervals that keep air handling plant free of microbial growth; AS 1851-2012, which carries the fire and smoke control features of the mechanical services and the kitchen exhaust hood into the same routine service regime as the fire systems; AS/NZS 5149.4 and the Ozone Protection legislation, which govern refrigerant leakage and who may touch it; and, for cooling towers, the public health regulation covered in the water systems guide. AIRAH DA19 is the industry's maintenance manual and the source of the service rhythm most contracts quote.

Who does what

Owner and staff tasks are the visual checks, the filter walk on small split systems, the temperature and airflow complaints log and the paperwork. Everything inside the plant is licensed or specialist work: refrigerant may only be handled by a technician holding a refrigerant handling licence, fire and smoke control tests need the fire and mechanical contractors together, kitchen exhaust cleaning is a specialist trade that issues a certificate, and damper inspection needs access panels and a register. The owner or facilities manager remains responsible for the schedule, the records and the annual fire safety statement where the mechanical systems are essential fire safety measures.

Routine inspections, services and tests, by system

Air handling plant and air conditioning (AS/NZS 3666.2)

Refrigerant systems (AS/NZS 5149.4 and the refrigerant licence)

The intervals are the standard's recommendation as reproduced in the Australia and New Zealand Refrigerant Handling Code of Practice; the licence requirement is law under the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management legislation. The code notes that the European F-gas regime, which sets frequencies by carbon dioxide equivalent, is the current best practice reference.

Fire and smoke control features (AS 1851-2012 and AS 1668.1)

In New South Wales mechanical ventilation and smoke control systems are essential fire safety measures on the building's fire safety schedule; the annual test is the evidence behind the annual fire safety statement, and the records sit in the fire logbook beside the AS 1851 fire system records.

Commercial kitchen exhaust (AS 1851-2012 and the AIRAH guideline)

Insurers commonly make the cleaning certificate a condition of cover for a commercial kitchen, and a grease fire in an uncleaned duct is the claim they decline.

Cooling towers and condenser water

Cooling towers carry their own public health regime: monthly Legionella and colony count testing, a five-yearly risk management plan and an annual independent audit in New South Wales. The water systems testing schedule sets it out; the chiller's condenser water treatment sits on the same monthly rhythm.

What the owner has to keep

The service reports for every visit, with the AS/NZS 3666.2 inspection items ticked and any cleaning noted. The refrigerant service record showing leak inspections, repairs and charge added, by a licensed technician. The damper register with each damper's location, type, last and next inspection. The kitchen exhaust cleaning certificates with grease thickness readings and photographs. The fire trip and smoke control test records in the fire logbook, and in New South Wales the annual fire safety statement that draws on them. Insurers ask for the kitchen and refrigerant records; the fire safety inspector asks for the rest.

Turning the schedule into a register

The intervals above only hold when every air handling unit, split system, exhaust fan, damper group, kitchen hood and smoke control feature in the building is listed with its interval, its contractor and where the report lives. That is an asset register with a maintenance planner on top of it. Standara's library carries these assets with the tasks and intervals attached, so selecting what the building has produces the 12-month schedule, and the compliance report is the record the fire safety inspector, the auditor or the insurer asks for. How to build a facilities asset register covers the site walk; the AS 1851 maintenance schedule covers the fire systems the mechanical services trip.

Related

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You now have the service rhythm for the mechanical plant, the rule behind each interval, and the records that prove it.